Hello,
I am pretty new here, but as a pre-med there is a lot of information out there about how to build up a good med school application (ie volunteer, clinical exp., research, etc.)
I was wondering if you guys could tell me what you all did to achieve your desired residency positions during med school. So far, all I can seem to find is getting good grades/scores. Is anything else as important as it is as a pre-med?
Any help is appreciated!
As a general piece of advice, the farther you get on in your education, the less the fluffy stuff matters and the more the objective criteria counts. In college applications to the Ivies, GPA, SAT, and recommendations from schoolteachers are almost of secondary importance, because it's not that hard to do well in both; thus, the rest of the application lies in recommendations from famous people, atheltics, artistic pursuits, community service, research, etc. In med school applications, GPA and MCAT become much more important, research and clinical experience becomes much more relevant, and extracurriculars such as marathons, orchestra participation, etc. become secondary. The primary interest is - can you hack medical school?
As for residencies, the focus is really on whether you can do the job of the resident and whether you have potential for being groomed into a top researcher, policy maker, etc. Thus, the Step 1 matters a ton, since it basically tells them what you know and about your reading work ethic. MS3/4 grades and recommendations matter a ton because they tell residencies how hard you work, how efficient you are, how you get on with people, etc. The other stuff - whether you play piano, write plays, were class president, sports, member of X interest group, etc. is pretty irrelevant to the work of a resident. Research is a plus, as is concrete work in policy making, administration, and global health. Otherwise, it's about Step 1 + MS3/4 grades + recommendations + med school reputation.
